How Social Networks May Kill Search as We Know It

mattnyc99 writes "Recently we discussed a startup that's blending social networking with traditional Web search. But now high geek Glenn Derene takes it one step further, pronouncing that our increasingly traceable online footprints will transform Google's dominant algorithm and open up the world of Web search for the 21st century. Speaking to a tuned-in VC guy and scoring a rare interview with Google's VP of search, Derene may have some meat behind his newly-coined term: 'faceboogle.' From the article: 'As we each carve out our individual niche on the Web, the logic of search may well flip inside out. Since we are essentially meta-tagging ourselves through our social networking memberships, shopping habits and surfing addictions, it's conceivable that the information could attempt to find us — the old concept of push media, but in a far more refined way.'"

"Faceboogle"?!?!?

[Otter]

Derene may have some meat behind his newly-coined term: 'faceboogle.'

I literally spit out a mouthful of Diet Coke upon reading that. "Faceboogle" replaces "blogmarklet" as The Worst New Word Ever. (Although it's still less annoying than "__? Not so much.)

How does one get to become "high geek", anyway?

Re:Start your watches.

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, hot random sorority girl friend you!

HELLO TO THE STATIC PERSONALITY

[E1v!$]

Anyone interested in changing themselves for the better, anyone wanna make a happier life?

Remember how every time you tried something new in H.S. or somewhere your peer group push you back into the mold of you they thought was 'the real you'? Ever have that happen in life? With parents? With all your long-term relationships?

Now the web will do the same thing

HELLO TO THE STATIC PERSONALITY. We don't change, nope never happens. You just refine your search algorithm and help us figure out who we are by marketing 'content' at us. Yeah.

IMO, Phucked.

Do not want

[mopower70]

I don't use Facebook, MySpace, or any of those social sites precisely because of the quality of the content there and the caliber of the people who use them. There's nothing on those sites that I look for, and I routinely ignore search results with social networking site results because of my experience with the crappy quality of information there: think Nextag and product searches.

Quotes like "Search has always been about people" show a fundamental ignorance of how most people over the age of 25 use search, and whatever accuracy it may contain is a damning indicator of the underachievement of those for whom it is true.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:oh god

[cayenne8]

Well, I know I'm a bit older, and slightly more paranoid about the Facebook/Myspace type social network sites....I basically have seen how things can be used against you later in life, and I wonder as the generation that has embraced these sites, and put out intimate details on their 'wild life', in both words and pictures, may start to shun the sites somewhat if predictions about how this information can (and I think will) be used against them in the adult world later on, when trying to get jobs, loans, and possibly other things that will increasingly use the internet/search for background information.

If this is the case, and people start being more cautious again about identifying themselves in meatspace on the social networks, this search trend might shrivel. On the other hand, this increased search capability of the social networks might help the scenario I eluded to above to be realized fairly quickly, since search for a person's background is made easier by those doing background checks.

Again...maybe it is my older age on this, but, ever since I've had my identity stolen twice, I've really started thinking Python got it right about the "Importance of not being seen".

I like to post on the net quite a bit, and while I know with some effort, I could be tracked even through here, but, I try to always use pseudonyms when posting, and often have used nym accounts and mail2news type services to stay anonymous even more on USENET posts. I know someone can find stuff about me, but, it would take more effort than just a quick search on a myspace 'search' like the article is mentioning....where with a simple real meatspace name, you can find out that a person like smoking grass, doing nude beer bongs (with pictures), and is open minded about the whole gerbil/Gere thing. If it comes between that person, and someone who pretty much makes it less than trivial to searched....who do you think will get the job?

Context is important

[roystgnr]

And even though you're rarely searching for something you've seen before, it's possible that knowledge of what you have seen before might still be used to put your searches into a better context.

If you're a parent planning to remodel your daughter's bathroom, for example: even though this may be the first time you've ever searched for fixtures with gender-specific decorations for children, a search engine that knows a bit about your demographics could probably give MUCH better results when you type in "tub girl".

static const personality

[AlpineR]

With all of the different avenues for expression, most of us are leaving vast imprints of ourselves on the web. For me, I have comments, photos, and relationships expressed on: Slashdot, TheDailyWTF, Digg, Amazon, Facebook, Friendster, Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo Answers, Blogger, Match, Usenet boards, Battlenet, my personal web pages, and much more. Some of those are current but many are old and not an accurate reflection of my current self.

For now most of those facets of my personality are separate. Someone reading this post is unlikely to link this personality to my Flickr photos or old Usenet postings. But someday a search engine like Google will figure out which personas are linked to me, even if I used different usernames and email addresses for each one. There are enough hints in the form of interests, writing style, and secondary links to tie them together. And there are likely archives of all those web postings going back to the dawn of the web.

So now I am tending to filter what I say in any forum, knowing that someday a prospective employer, landlord, creditor, lawyer, or mate will read it. The age of freedom and anonymity online has ended. The only hope is that those seeing our former selves will learn to accept our fluidity and diversity of behavior.

Re:oh god

[daretoeatapeach]

On the one hand, you are completely right. I have seen potential job candidates judged on the cleavage in their Facebook photos--and this is all without accessing the actual page.

But you don't have to put anything questionable on your page. There's nothing inherent in myspace etc that you couldn't put on your homepage. So I think some people will lose jobs over it but they will get jobs eventually and learn their lesson.

Much scarier is what corporations and governments may want to do with that info. Facebook scares the friendliness out of me and I'm not too pleased that Murdoch owns Myspace. The same people that don't want their names on the PETA mailing list are happy to post pics of themselves protesting free trade.